Future
- 85 F-35A Lightning II are expected to replace the F-16 fleet, the number is probably cut to 42 due to rising costs and budget-cuts by the Dutch government. One F-35A has been delivered for the testing program and for training pilots and maintenance crew. This first aircraft is stationed at a base in Florida, USA.
- 20 NH90 helicopters will replace the former Navy Lynx helicopters. The NH90 helicopters will be stationed at Gilze-Rijen (8 NH-90 Naval Transport version and SAR) and De Kooy (12 NFH-90 anti-submarine warfare).
The Netherlands was the first country to sign up for the Production Sustainment and Follow On Development (PSFD) Phase of the F-35 Lightning II aircraft.
Through the NATO Strategic Airlift Capability, the RNLAF has access to three C-17s.
Read more about this topic: Royal Netherlands Air Force
Famous quotes containing the word future:
“One merit in Carlyle, let the subject be what it may, is the freedom of prospect he allows, the entire absence of cant and dogma. He removes many cartloads of rubbish, and leaves open a broad highway. His writings are all unfenced on the side of the future and the possible. Though he does but inadvertently direct our eyes to the open heavens, nevertheless he lets us wander broadly underneath, and shows them to us reflected in innumerable pools and lakes.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I would sum up my fear about the future in one word: boring. And that’s my one fear: that everything has happened; nothing exciting or new or interesting is ever going to happen again ... the future is just going to be a vast, conforming suburb of the soul.”
—J.G. (James Graham)
“Parents are like shuttles on a loom. They join the threads of the past with threads of the future and leave their own bright patterns as they go.”
—Fred Rogers (20th century)